Route 18 bridge replacement may cause traffic jams

NEW BRUNSWICK – Work is underway to widen the Route 18 bridges over Route 1 in the city.

In the meantime, a $28.4 million project to ease congestion on Route 18 might be the cause of some traffic jams.

The state Department of Transportation is using federal money to replace and widen the Route 18 bridges over Route 1. The roadway carries 100,000 vehicles between Route 1 and the New Jersey Turnpike every day.

The Route 18 project is expected to be finished by spring 2016. Until then, drivers will lose some lanes on the highway. DOT officials expect travel lanes to be shifted to the right through the fall. Workers will try to keep up to two lanes of travel open in each direction.

Work, meanwhile, also is continuing on the nearby New Jersey Turnpike Interchange 9 project in East Brunswick.

The separate Turnpike project was conceived in 2011, when Turnpike officials said Interchange 9 was in need of improvements to address traffic congestion on the toll plaza and Route 18.

The $27.7 million project was started in fall 2012 and was originally expected to be completed in July 2015 before utility relocation problems delayed the estimated completion date to October 2015.

The Route 18 lane shifts will begin as soon as workers complete setting up their work zone on the Route 1 median under the Route 18 bridge. Workers began setting up the work zone last week, resulting in two Route 1 lanes in each direction being closed every night between 10:30 and 6 a.m.

The project will replace the three-lane southbound and three-lane northbound bridges. The northbound roadway will be widened by converting a shoulder into a travel lane from Westons Mill Pond to the Route 1 interchange.

The project also calls for retaining walls and sidewalks in order to comply with the state Complete Streets Policy and Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, state officials said Tuesday.